tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30605342958921705182018-03-09T16:35:16.579+10:00Real World LibertarianThe politics of liberty and the defence thereof.Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.comBlogger1945125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-66910626295300295182016-04-14T12:07:00.000+10:002016-04-14T13:29:31.504+10:00High speed rail; the new Eastern Suburbs Railway line<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NN6Jun7J0uQ/Vw7rIU3L2iI/AAAAAAAAIkQ/IUlinjr2QjAu4TDNlpXHaoue8UPoZSZ5ACLcB/s1600/12923192_10153690241172672_235287155347214207_n-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NN6Jun7J0uQ/Vw7rIU3L2iI/AAAAAAAAIkQ/IUlinjr2QjAu4TDNlpXHaoue8UPoZSZ5ACLcB/s400/12923192_10153690241172672_235287155347214207_n-1.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement of the projected building of a high speed rail network up the East coast including regional centres will come as welcome relief to many traditionalists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is believed that it will probably replace the Eastern Suburbs Railway Line in Australian mythology.</div><div class="MsoNormal">For those not familiar with the ESRL, it was a line that was initially proposed in the late 1800s, planned in 1926, started, stopped, and promised at every election thereafter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>As such it became a part of our folklore until 1979 when it was completed by the Wran government, creating many idioms on the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Unemployment, for example was referred to as “working on the Eastern Suburbs line.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Recognising the hole left in the Australian psyche by the lack of a never-never election promise, the Hawke government showed interest in the idea of high-speed rail as a politically viable though uneconomic alternative in the early 80s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Most governments seeking re-election since then have backed the idea, which raises the possibility that in another thirty years or so, it could become an iconic promise.</div><div class="MsoNormal">At this point it will have to be either acted on or dropped, owing in this day and age to the risk of it becoming a heritage listed promise which would prevent any further action on it.<br />In the meantime though it will offer generous employment prospects for planners, researchers, study groups, lawyers, and think tanks, keeping them on the gravy train for the foreseeable future.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The lack of any implied commitment to HSR by the Turnbull government, raised concerns among some commentators that the government would rely on the newer, tried and tested pledge to adopt fiscal restraint, balance the budget and pay off the deficit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Economic restraint in the Liberal Party is showing signs of remaining a pipe dream for 50 – 100 years, with an accelerating rate of postponement already apparent.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">You must however respect the PMs desire to stick with tradition and offer the vision of sleepers and rails heading off into the sunset.</div><div class="MsoNormal">We need to be grateful that Hawkie came up with high speed rail rather than our own death star, an idea which is just so 80s. &nbsp;Death stars, while offering the sort of kudos derived from commitments to spend a billion trillion gazillion dollars, tend to be more impractical than high speed rail. Sooner or later, everyone wants one and they lose their effectiveness when other nations realise that you wouldn't be stupid enough to blow yourself up in order to get your own way.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">This would probably happen sometime after the current crop of politicians leave office.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red;"><b>(UPDATE) </b></span>The government has denied that this is how the idea got started:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3jl9hTIkXXc?rel=0" width="300"></iframe> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-48506859951952008422015-03-23T15:58:00.001+10:002015-03-23T16:01:35.473+10:00Leyonhjelm calls Fraser condolence day a waste of time.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2PcCUh3YdjE/VQ-p6CsVD3I/AAAAAAAAIjk/EAslf3tzEkI/s1600/1400153455786.jpg-620x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2PcCUh3YdjE/VQ-p6CsVD3I/AAAAAAAAIjk/EAslf3tzEkI/s1600/1400153455786.jpg-620x349.jpg" height="200" width="186" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I often say after eight years in Washington, I longed for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.</span>”</i> – Fred Thompson.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Fraser years (1975 – 83) began with a feeling of euphoria at getting rid of Whitlam, followed by eight years of inertia, then a sense of relief when he was tossed out.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now on his death, parliament has been suspended for the day in order to allow those who despised him, or were despised by him, to wax lyrical on what a great bloke he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Irony is lost on these people.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">Liberal Democrat senator, David Leyonhjelm seems to be the only <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-fraser-death-senator-david-leyonhjelm-rubbishes-decision-to-suspend-parliament-20150322-1m58gx.html">stand out on this:&nbsp;</a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">A crossbench senator says halting Parliament for a day to pay tribute to former prime minister Malcolm Fraser is a waste of time.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Question time and other parliamentary business has been cancelled in the House of Representatives and the Senate on Monday to give MPs an opportunity to make a speech about Mr Fraser, who died on Friday after a short illness. The former Liberal Party leader was 84.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">"We have an awful lot of work to do and we lose a whole day for condolence motions? It might be OK to stop for a few hours but losing a whole day I think is over the top," Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm told Fairfax Media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>"I hope Hawkey doesn't die, otherwise we'll never get any work done."</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The NSW libertarian senator said most Australians would agree with his view that the tributes were a waste of time. He said voters expected parliamentarians to be working, "not slacking".</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Senator Leyonhjelm also doubted many MPs would even want to give a speech about Mr Fraser and said he would not be adding his voice to the tributes. "He was a right-wing extremist when I first knew him and he was a left-wing extremist when he died," Senator Leyonhjelm said.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">"And my mum said, 'If you can't say anything good about someone, don't say anything at all.' " …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It is easy to understand David’s frustration given the hours of monotonous long-winded diatribes, most delivered with all of the sincerity of mafia dons at a funeral for one of their colleagues that they ordered the hit on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Gettysburg Address, which is still regarded as one of the finest ever delivered in American history, contained 272 words and about two minutes to deliver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;Most of our</span></span>&nbsp;current crop would need several thousand words (repeating each talking point three times) and an hour to address an allowance motion to scratch their bums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></div></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-84405897764567329892015-03-22T23:43:00.000+10:002015-03-23T00:16:41.292+10:00Qld Cops target law-abiding drivers under ‘hoon’ laws<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uuF7_hwuL54/VQ7E_miYooI/AAAAAAAAIjQ/c4PeHD3wyLY/s1600/3172783569_4071144d33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uuF7_hwuL54/VQ7E_miYooI/AAAAAAAAIjQ/c4PeHD3wyLY/s320/3172783569_4071144d33.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div>Image (R): A cop’s eye view of motoring enthusiasts.<br /><br />&nbsp;The late and unlamented LNP government in Queensland were masters at running scare campaigns in order to push through draconian laws attacking basic liberties.<br /><br />&nbsp;As an example, a fistfight among a few bikers outside a Gold Coast restaurant was turned into a national emergency necessitating immediate action to rectify the situation. The result was the brutal anti-association laws under the VLAD act under which having been a member of a declared club in the distant past could result in prosecution.<br /><br />&nbsp;In a similar vein, we were propagandized extensively on hoons doing burnouts and street racing on every road and street in the state, requiring anti hoon laws to bring us under control.<br /><br />&nbsp;The result was an act in which hoon was not mentioned nor defined, but gave the police more powers to harass motorists.&nbsp; <br /><br />These <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/cars-taken-off-queensland-roads-under-anti-hooning-laws-for-offences-other-than-hooning/story-fnihsrf2-1227272917802">are being abused:</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Although the LNP sold the laws as their tough “anti-hooning” policy, the term “hoon” is not referenced anywhere in the legislation. … &nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;… Insp Krang said hardcore hoons were still active throughout the state but they were less prone to routine illegal meets in public because of increased enforcement of the laws. He said law-abiding motoring buffs who liked to “show and shine” their vehicles at sanctioned events should not be mistaken for hoons. &nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;But law-abiding revheads have slammed hoons who tarnish their image, saying they are being unfairly targeted by police as a result. Downshift Australia has the largest gatherings of revheads in Australia, with two meets a month in Queensland. Director Matyas Fulop said police target people at his events for “trivial” offences. &nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;“We’ve got people trying to come to a car meet that is properly organised, insured, on private property and away from residential housing,” he said. “They (police) come to our events looking for things wrong on the cars, they’ll say it’s their job, but really, is it?” …&nbsp;</blockquote>&nbsp;Here is (now) Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm on similar issues at Summernats: <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9F4LlAZRmmE" width="560"></iframe></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-16831184073388445052014-11-26T01:07:00.000+10:002014-11-26T01:07:44.163+10:00SFP stupidity causes Deer Association to recommend below the line voting in Victoria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-61cJ4OhTq5A/VHSamOkEolI/AAAAAAAAIho/oRCMKKIgl5A/s1600/98f3602d-3a2c-47a4-8382-77fb9cbe8cc7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-61cJ4OhTq5A/VHSamOkEolI/AAAAAAAAIho/oRCMKKIgl5A/s1600/98f3602d-3a2c-47a4-8382-77fb9cbe8cc7.jpg" height="130" width="200" /></a>Shooters and fishermen are by nature sensible, pragmatic, active people who brave the elements and government regulation in order to pursue their sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Both have to be so; they could come to grief quickly from any miscalculation or inattention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">In order to protect what rights they have left, they have formed the Shooters and Fishers Party to try to develop some political clout.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, unlike the membership, this party seems to be run by a mob of tossers who through either crass stupidity, or deliberate bloody mindedness have developed a long history of favouring anti-gun parties over more shooting friendly ones.</div><div class="MsoNormal">As recently as the Western Australian senate rerun, they passed their preferences to HEMP, which has no affinity with shooters, then on to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/wa-senate-2014/detail/">Palmer, whose candidate they were instrumental in electing</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>(See count 31 and 35)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Palmer detests guns and has refused to work with Bob Katter because of that.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">Despite this, in the current Victorian election, SFP have given their first preference to PUP in three regions including two where shooters have a large presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In one of these, (Northern) the lead Palmer candidate previously stood as a Green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The concern that shooting enthusiasts may inadvertently elect supporters of gun control has caused the <a href="http://us7.forward-to-friend1.com/forward/show?u=e126ff12cbbcb8d3dfa71147b&amp;id=547ed73103">Australian Deer Association to advocate voting below the line.</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Under Victorian electoral rules voters only have to vote for five candidates below the line:&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The how-to-vote cards demonstrate that the preferences of political parties do not necessarily reflect their policies and values. In fact, it appears that, in most cases, if they do so it is more by accident than by design.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">There are four parties which are pro- hunting and shooting contesting the elections this year: Australian Country Alliance</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Liberal Democrats</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Nationals; and</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Shooters and Fishers Party. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Shooters and Fishers Party, for example, have given their first preference in Eastern Victoria, Northern Victoria <i>(the two regions where a party which supporters hunters and shooters and other users of public land have the best chance of being elected)</i> and Western Victoria to the Palmer United Party.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">As we have highlighted elsewhere in this newsletter, Clive Palmer is 'anti-gun' and the Palmer Party’s main candidate in Northern Victoria was the Greens’ main Northern Victoria candidate in the 2010 state elections.</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Party’s second candidate ran as an independent in the 2004 federal election on an anti-logging platform. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The Liberal Democrats have given their first two preferences in Eastern Victoria to the Shooters and Fishers and Australian Country Alliance, their first preference to Country Alliance in Northern Victoria and their third in Western Victoria and their first preference to Shooters and Fishers in Western Victoria and their third in Northern Victoria. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">… Unlike voting for the Senate in Federal elections, it is easy to vote below-the-line in the Victorian Upper House elections. All you need to do is mark at least the squares of five candidates with the numbers 1 to 5. After that you may fill in as many squares as you like with consecutive numbers. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><a href="http://us7.forward-to-friend1.com/forward/show?u=e126ff12cbbcb8d3dfa71147b&amp;id=547ed73103">Follow the link to see recommendations on how to maximize the shooter friendly vote</a> by going below the line, its simple and eliminates the danger of electing gun grabbers by mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It is a shame that other shooting orientated organizations like the SSAA do not have the wit or foresight to come up with or support such ideas, but continue to blindly vote the SFP ticket in the mistaken belief that they are protecting the interests of their members.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4d4d4d; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">An alternative to the advice above is to vote for the Liberal Democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We have placed all shooter friendly parties above the majors, including the SFP in two regions but were duded by them on the agreement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Liberal Democrats have <a href="http://www.ldp.org.au/index.php/policies/1152-firearms">an excellent raft of shooter friendly policies,</a> and have placed Palmer down at the bottom of the ticket with the Greens across the board.&nbsp;</span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-2392307526697681562014-10-29T23:49:00.000+10:002014-10-29T23:51:38.443+10:00Cormann reaches for his pen and his phone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_QtHQp3Qifo/VFDvS8a9tdI/AAAAAAAAIhY/6P3JpzwrWJY/s1600/530723-67c7e4b2-5f44-11e4-a377-9d0943ea8d1d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_QtHQp3Qifo/VFDvS8a9tdI/AAAAAAAAIhY/6P3JpzwrWJY/s1600/530723-67c7e4b2-5f44-11e4-a377-9d0943ea8d1d.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Cartoon: By <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/cartoons/photos-e6frg6zx-1226796005926?page=1">Bill Leak</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">President Obama has been accused of ruling by decree in our language or to use the US term, by executive orders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">Under this system a king, emperor, dictator, autocrat, or sundry despot picks up the phone and orders that his will be done.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">It seems now that the minister for finance, Mathias Cormann has caught the bug and is using his pen and his phone, (to use the President’s own term) <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/fuel-tax-to-rise-as-mathias-cormann-announces-indexation-adjustment/story-fn59nsif-1227104519189">to increase fuel excise without senate approval:</a>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">MOTORISTS are set to pay a $4 billion increase in fuel tax over the next four years despite the Senate’s objections to the controversial budget measure as the Abbott government uses administrative powers to impose the change.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Finance Minister Mathias Cormann declared the government would adjust the indexation in the belief the change would be legislated in due course, ensuring the revenue could be raised while the Senate argues over the bill.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The change will take effect from 10 November when the fuel tax will rise from 38.143 cents per litre to 38.6 cents per litre.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The national average price for unleaded petrol was about 1.52 a litre last week according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The Liberals and Nationals are playing a dangerous game here if they are relying on Green support to pass this legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While the Greens would welcome any legislation that raised the cost of fuel out of the reach of the poor, they will be in the box seat to move their agenda forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">They will undoubtedly aim to eliminate the fuel rebate to non-road users, something they have always had in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The fuel tax was originally designed as a user pays system of financing highway construction, although only a small portion goes toward that purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The rest is pissed against the wall and the Greens are smart enough to understand that the LNP are desperate enough to sacrifice the mining and agricultural industries if it is needed to buy votes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The Liberals have come up with some Gillardesque spin in attempting to blame Shorten in advance for any attempt to block this effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They are claiming that if it is not passed, the revenue raised will go back to ‘big oil’ and it will be all his fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There is a slight element of truth in this as the tax raised will be paid by oil companies and passed on to consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If it fails to pass, the revenue will go back to those companies, not to the consumers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">It is however, completely dishonest to blame the opposition for a circumstance created by a unilateral decision by the government to start taxing now and waiting for the umpires verdict.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">It is worth noting that from the figures above, about 25% of the cost of a tank of fuel goes to the government and they want more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-17624653154057524152014-10-03T00:04:00.000+10:002014-10-03T00:11:16.202+10:00Senate ‘Q&A’ style panel to investigate Qld government<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Or: Beware of Greens bearing gifts</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WvKxRG44Bmg/VC1ZLGz1HFI/AAAAAAAAIhI/st_V88m8TU4/s1600/1236837_794561967251856_7188267235853421862_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WvKxRG44Bmg/VC1ZLGz1HFI/AAAAAAAAIhI/st_V88m8TU4/s1600/1236837_794561967251856_7188267235853421862_n.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Cartoon: By <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Zanetti-Cartoonist/521460511228671">Paul Zanetti&nbsp;</a></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">About the only thing that inspires any confidence that the Newman government is doing anything right is that crony capitalist and white shoe brigade wannabe, Clive Palmer has an obsessive hatred of it.</div><div class="MsoNormal">After years of being in bed with the LNP and a major donor to it, Clive has spat the dummy after receiving unfavourable decisions on some of his projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>While most ex-mistresses settle for writing tell-all books or at least a series of well-paid television interviews, Clive has instead used his diminishing wealth to establish his own political party, which he uses to obstruct the federal government’s agenda and use as a stalking horse against the Newman government.</div><div class="MsoNormal">He has now done a deal with Labor and the Greens to set up <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-30/senate-opens-inquiry-into-newman-government/5780264">an inquiry into the Queensland government:&nbsp;</a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">... Clive Palmer&nbsp;has been engaged in a bitter and long-running personal feud with Premier Campbell Newman&nbsp;and has now been given a significant weapon to use against him. &nbsp;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It is a loss for the Federal Government which had successfully seen off a previous attempt to establish the inquiry, arguing it was without legal precedent and overrides parliamentary&nbsp;convention.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Over the next six months the committee will examine Queensland's use of Commonwealth funds, the administration of the state's judicial system, and questions around development and environmental approvals.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The select committee, which will consist of five members but only one from the Coalition, has a reporting date on or before March 27 next year, very close to the date of the next Queensland election.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Mr Newman is on holidays but issued a statement calling the inquiry a stunt. His federal counterparts said the inquiry would abuse an established principle&nbsp;that federal and state parliaments stay out of each other's business.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Senator Eric Abetz, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, said it was part of Mr Palmer's vendetta against Mr Newman. "Basically it's a bitch session about Queensland," Senator Abetz said. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal">The composition of the inquiry is very reminiscent of the ABC’s Q&amp;A show in which one member of the right is confronted by three or four lefties plus the moderator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In this case, the Liberals who have 33 senators have a single representative, Labor (25) have two, the Greens (10) have one, and PUP (3) also have one.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The inquiry was scuttled on an earlier attempt to set it up when the Liberals moved to include the Bligh Labor government’s activities as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This one was supposed to avoid such scrutiny.</div><div class="MsoNormal">In further developments, Labor and PUP have found <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/campbell-newman-inquiry-may-backfire-on-clive-palmer/story-fn59niix-1227077117859">they have been duded by the Greens</a>:&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">… <span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The backing of the Greens was crucial to the Palmer United Party’s third attempt to secure a Senate investi­gation into all ­aspects of Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s Liberal Nat­ional Party government.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Greens senator for Queensland Larissa Waters denied her party had been caught up in what the Abbott government has dubbed Mr Palmer’s “personal vendetta’’ against Mr Newman.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“The terms of reference that we’ve had included will ensure that we can look at not just the Newman government’s environmental track record but the dodgy coal-seam gas approvals under the Bligh (Labor) government, and also Mr Palmer’s own activities with his mega mines in the Galilee and his Yabulu refinery on the shores of the Great Barrier Reef,’’ Senator Waters said.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Yabula is Australia’s highest emitting nickel refinery.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The Newman government is taking legal advice on the inquiry, and is expected to turn the tables on PUP and use the Senate probe to retaliate and dump on Mr Palmer and Labor. ...</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Palmer and Labor would do well to remember the old adage; beware of Greens bearing gifts.</span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-19684006465804660362014-09-24T01:27:00.000+10:002014-09-24T01:27:11.381+10:00Probable terrorist incident in Melbourne<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zu0h8nGv9uM/VCGQVy4CQ2I/AAAAAAAAIg4/LA9-ARhYpP4/s1600/379009-28f78768-431c-11e4-891d-7aa98880eeab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zu0h8nGv9uM/VCGQVy4CQ2I/AAAAAAAAIg4/LA9-ARhYpP4/s1600/379009-28f78768-431c-11e4-891d-7aa98880eeab.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">Initial reports were of a stabbing of two police officers in suburban Melbourne, however as more information becomes available, there is little doubt that this incident <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/man-shot-dead-two-counterterrorism-officers-stabbed-outside-endeavour-hills-police-station/story-fnii5sms-1227068293410">is terrorist related:&nbsp;</a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">A MAN shot dead by police in Melbourne’s southeast tonight was a “person of interest” in a counter-terrorism operation and had been under surveillance for making threats against Prime Minister Tony Abbott.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Senior intelligence sources confirmed he was among a number of people who have had their passports cancelled recently.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">A Victoria Police officer and Australian Federal Police agent involved in a joint agency investigation were stabbed by an occupant of a car they pulled over outside Endeavour Hlils police station about 7.40pm.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">It is believed the Victoria Police officer drew his gun and shot the alleged attacker dead.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">It is not known what the threat involved, or whether the man had been involved in planning some kind of attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is understood the counter terrorism operation was aimed at detaining and questioning the man in relation to the threats.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">A bomb squad officer dressed in an explosives suit and bomb squad robot are combing the police station as forensic detectives comb the scene.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The Prime Minister was tonight on a plane to New York from Canberra, where he will attend UN meetings dealing with the rising threat of Islamic State.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">A Monash Health spokeswoman confirmed one of the officers was taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. He was expected to be discharged late tonight or tomorrow. The other was taken to The Alfred and his condition is unknown.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">There are unconfirmed reports that the second officer is in a critical condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We wish him well and hope for a speedy recovery, and thank both of them for their effort on our behalf.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">While it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the difference between random acts of drug, alcohol, insanity, or radical Islamic fueled acts of violence, this one appears to be the latter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The passport cancellation is most likely the result of a reasonable suspicion that the person involved was attempting to leave the country in order to join foreign fighters in conflict zones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Threats against the prime minister (or anyone else for that matter) are not to be tolerated and it is reasonable to suggest that the police officers were within their rights here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">While its possible that the suspect was playing with a couple of cards short of a full deck, or the odd fatwa short of a jihad, there are reasonable grounds to think that this is a terrorist incident.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-45484032002895300972014-09-15T01:20:00.000+10:002014-09-15T01:20:08.693+10:00Fred Nile calls for dress code<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9o_loZQ4YTw/VBWxFx9m0HI/AAAAAAAAIgo/9_qRfqlRWnQ/s1600/1againsttransvestitesareyouCOLCP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9o_loZQ4YTw/VBWxFx9m0HI/AAAAAAAAIgo/9_qRfqlRWnQ/s1600/1againsttransvestitesareyouCOLCP.jpg" height="200" width="185" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: -1.0cm;">Cartoon: by <a href="http://balooscartoonblog.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2014-08-27T13:01:00-07:00&amp;max-results=7&amp;start=7&amp;by-date=false">R May</a>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: -1.0cm;">Australia’s wowser in chief, Fred Nile is having a second crack at banning the burqa, or at least preventing the covering of the face in public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>He doesn’t mention the terms, burqa or Muslims in his bill and it will be interesting to see how this affects brides at traditional Christian weddings.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: -1.0cm;">Fred is a man who knows what he hates and believes that all things he detests need to be prohibited via the auspices of the great and good benevolent state which, under his gentle guidance knows what is best for all of us.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: -1.0cm;">He will though, <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/fred-nile-move-to-ban-burqa-antiislamic-20140911-3favq.html">allow us to wear ski masks in a blizzard,</a> but only if it becomes fashionable:&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">He says the measures come at an "opportune" time after Wednesday's arrest in Queensland of two men allegedly linked to terrorist groups in Syria.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">"We also face the new Islamic State (IS) terrorist threat, whose black uniforms for both men and women include face coverings to prevent identification," he told the upper house.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Labor MP Amanda Fazio said the measures were "anti-Islamic" and had more to do with Mr Nile's bid for re-election in March. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">… Under Mr Nile's plan, a person who covers their face in public would face a $550 fine and a person who forces someone else to cover their face would be hit with a $1100 penalty.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The plan allows faces to be covered under certain conditions, such as during a parade or if "Sydney is suddenly hit by a blizzard and ski masks are the latest fashion", the MP said. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">… John Blaxland, an intelligence and security expert at the Australian National University, said authorities already had powers to ask for face coverings to be removed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He said Mr Nile's plan was unlikely to be supported by the security community. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It is uncertain why the time is “opportune because of the arrest of two men with terrorist links.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>None of the reports on the incident indicate that either of them was wearing a burqa at the time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">It is difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to capitalize on anti-Islamic sentiment using their traditional dress as an excuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We shouldn’t fall for the PC line that anti-terrorism measures are by nature anti-Islamic, (we have yet to see a Lutheran or Baptist suicide bomber) but banning religious symbols does nothing to improve our security.</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-9520423446555538762014-09-03T00:21:00.000+10:002014-09-03T00:21:51.996+10:00Bob Day; “enemy of the state”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H94I6-8NPJk/VAXRUP0voRI/AAAAAAAAIgY/pjl5Pp4hP18/s1600/bob-day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H94I6-8NPJk/VAXRUP0voRI/AAAAAAAAIgY/pjl5Pp4hP18/s1600/bob-day.jpg" height="200" width="160" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Image: Bob Day, Weatherill’s nominee for first against the wall when the revolution comes.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Since the demise of Leonid Brezhnev and later the Soviet Union, the term, ‘enemy of the state’ has largely gone out of fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While there are occasional references to it from regimes like North Korea, and Zimbabwe, its use in the west is virtually zero.</div><div class="MsoNormal">South Australian premier Jake Weatherill has resurrected it though with his reference to SA Senator, Bob Day as an enemy of the state over his opposition to <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/there-are-limits-to-who-you-call-mate/story-fnk76wj3-1227040554668">interstate tax transfer payments:</a>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">… Mr Weatherill describes the­ ­fellow South Australian as an “enemy’’ of the state and a “lost cause’’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“Senator Day wants to cut more deeply than even Tony Abbott wants to cut,’’ the Premier told a Senate select committee on health yesterday.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“Senator Day wants to sell out South Australia to the Western Australians and hand over $1 billion of our GST payments. Senator Day is an enemy of South Australia. I don’t need to meet with him.’’</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Senator Day hit back, saying the Weatherill government just wanted to “spend, spend, spend’’.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“The Premier shouldn’t come to Canberra just to listen to those who will tell him what he wants to hear, but to those with initiatives to help South Australia,’’ he said. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Weatherill is being dishonest here in his claim that Bob supports ‘handing over $1 billion of South Australia’s GST payments’ to Western Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The reality is that for every dollar contributed by SA in GST, it receives $1.29 back, the majority of the additional sum coming from Western Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">WA on the other hand, receives only $0.38c per dollar back from its dollar, soon to be reduced substantially.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The money Weatherill is talking about is not South Australia’s; it is the proceeds of an interstate welfare arrangement based on the idea of from each according to his ability to each according to his need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This may be the origin of Weatherill’s ‘enemy of the state’ nonsense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Perhaps Jake will use some of that Western Australian and New South Wales money to establish a reeducation facility for Bob.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned “capitalist (or imperialist) running dog?</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-10659295974012535222014-08-23T00:33:00.000+10:002014-08-23T09:28:41.652+10:00Oh great; we give $21.6 million to Disney, or:<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Captain Jack meets the broken window theory</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--vQDRrU5ZQE/U_dTM4NvzCI/AAAAAAAAIgA/qMOYS6YqIuQ/s1600/592994-f3f74656-28be-11e4-9cd4-169c4b45f9f2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--vQDRrU5ZQE/U_dTM4NvzCI/AAAAAAAAIgA/qMOYS6YqIuQ/s1600/592994-f3f74656-28be-11e4-9cd4-169c4b45f9f2.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Most of us today are familiar with <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html">Bastiat’s broken window theory</a>, where those observing the replacement of a broken pane of glass tend to look on the bright side by thinking of how good it is for the glazier to get the trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Bastiat points out though that this ignores the fact that the window owner is left with no gain for his expense, and the cobbler, tailor, or perhaps bookseller who might have benefitted from the trade instead, miss out.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Keynesian economists though, love broken windows and never cease telling us at the advent of any disaster, just how good all of the resultant repair work will be for the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Kiwis were said to be<a href="http://jimunro.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/brighter-side-of-nz-earthquakes.html"> the luckiest people in the world after the Christchurch earthquakes</a>:&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Our Treasurer Joe Hockey though, sees no reason to hang around waiting for something bad to happen in order to strip the economy of funds to repair damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Joe is ahead of the game to the point where he supports event and project lobby groups in spending on what aint broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Krugman is so yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Instead of spending money on devastation, <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/major-play-for-next-pirates-of-the-caribbean-movie-to-be-filmed-on-the-gold-coast/story-e6freon6-1227031592815">he wants to piss it away on something fun, like making movies</a> with similar results:<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">MOVIE giant Disney is being offered a near $22 million treasure chest to bring Johnny Depp’s billion dollar <i>Pirates of the Caribbean </i>franchise to the Gold Coast.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The <i>Bulletin</i>understands high-level discussions have taken place between US film bosses, Screen Queensland and the Federal Government to bring the lucrative franchise to Warner Bros’ Village Roadshow studios at Oxenford.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The sweetener being dangled in front of producers of the film, tentatively titled <i>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</i>, is a one-off payment of $21.6 million.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The money, originally offered by the Gillard Government to Disney for director David Fincher’s stalled <i>20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</i> reboot, is at the centre of talks, with hopes the funds can be transferred to the Pirates production, which is expected to begin shooting early next year.</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance has also met with Disney.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A film industry insider told the <i>Bulletin</i> discussions had progressed well and that the project was desperately needed for the city’s stalling film industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“We really need this movie for the Gold Coast and we are hoping things come together,” the source said. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">… Gold Coast Tourism boss Martin Winter said securing the filming of a major blockbuster would pay dividends for the city. “The most immediate opportunity would be with the set itself becoming an attraction for people to visit, similar to the ship construction on The Spit for the <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i> film,” he said.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">“However, the long-term benefit to the local economy would clearly be the boost to employment numbers and if we reinforce the industry then it can only be a great thing for the Gold Coast.” …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Effectively, there is little difference between the two ideas; the first being that the diversion of funds to disaster reparations is an economic boon, and the second being that a similar diversion towards an unnecessary project does the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Both have visible results to show for the expenditure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In both cases the lost opportunities of non-government activities in the private sector with the money used for those purposes cannot be assessed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Industry and regional lobbyists can point to the relatively small amount per capita to be used for this project and the benefits that will accrue to little battlers like Disney and Warner Bros’ Village Roadshow, along with extra wealth for the glitter strip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The things that might have happened instead elsewhere are invisible, because they didn’t occur.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><b>A better solution</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The real injustice of this proposal is that money is taken from taxpayers across the country and funneled into the Gold Coast, only benefitting that area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If making the movie there really needs to happen here, a scheme that will encourage this yet benefit the wider population would be fairer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A little imagination, (or in this case whimsy) offers a far more equitable solution to the problem of getting it made here while still spreading the benefit to the wider community.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">An approach could be made to Disney offering to use $21.6 million for the following benefits to Australian viewers to encourage them to watch it if it is made here:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>First; Every ticket sold will be rewarded by the government with a free large bucket of popcorn, soft drink, and packet of Jaffa’s, (Do they still roll those down the aisle?) to have while watching the show, and:</li><li>Second; Every rental or download will come with a government gift certificate for a family sized McHappy meal, (or the equivalent from Hungry Jacks, KFC, Subway, etc) along with fries, large coke, and whatever.</li></ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">While this could cop some criticism from the AMA and associated health Nazis, all of the proposed benefits to the Coast would still come to fruition, and fast food joints across the nation would benefit, creating additional regional employment and generating untold wealth everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Truly, this represents a win win scenario.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--><br /><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-82356616181199191132014-08-08T00:28:00.000+10:002014-08-08T00:28:34.462+10:00Jew hating journalist quits rather than apologize<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Few articles on the Gaza conflict could be as deliberately misleading as the one, by veteran leftist shill and apologist, Mike Carlton who launched into a quixotic diatribe under the cartoon (below, and since removed), which can only be distinguished from Nazi propaganda from the 30s and 40s by virtue of the remote control, which was not available back then.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Adog5OGHvEU/U-OLzk_hMVI/AAAAAAAAIfc/tUBeEGGJ0-Q/s1600/article-2715083-203B6F2900000578-855_634x343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Adog5OGHvEU/U-OLzk_hMVI/AAAAAAAAIfc/tUBeEGGJ0-Q/s1600/article-2715083-203B6F2900000578-855_634x343.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Sydney morning Herald has apologized for the cartoon after a week of criticism and complaints, however Carlton has engaged in a vulgar diatribe against readers who have complained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Some have been told to f**k off, been called pathetic f***wits, likudnicks, and a variety of other abusive terms by him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The ABC has referred to this as<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4061853.htm"> “</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2e4021; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4061853.htm">strident debate with his readers.”&nbsp;</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">After numerous complaints about this SMH apologized on his behalf, then decided to demand that he do so and accept a suspension. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Being too arrogant and self-righteous to accept this he has quit his position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Good bye and good riddance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Australian media coverage of the Gaza conflict has largely followed the type seen internationally with most of the journalists embedded with Hamas and reporting on the war from the terrorist side of the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Reportage therefore is one sided and gives a false impression of aggression by the Israelis against relatively helpless Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Most Palestinians are helpless, but are ruled by the terrorist group Hamas which sees advantage in launching rockets into Israel from among the civilian population, who cop the consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Among <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/israels-rank-and-rotten-fruit-is-being-called-fascism-20140724-zwd2t.html">Carlton’s more hyperbolic rating is:</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">… Yes, Hamas is also trying to kill Israeli civilians, with a barrage of rockets and guerilla border attacks. It, too, is guilty of terror and grave war crimes. But Israeli citizens and their homes and towns have been effectively shielded by the nation's Iron Dome defence system, and so far only three of its civilians have died in this latest conflict. The Israeli response has been out of all proportion, a monstrous distortion of the much-vaunted right of self defence.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is a breathtaking irony that these atrocities can be committed by a people with a proud liberal tradition of scholarship and culture, who hold the Warsaw Ghetto and the six million dead of the Holocaust at the centre of their race memory. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Carlton neglects to mention the tunnels through which Hamas launched attacks into Israel, which along with rocket attacks were the primary source of the necessity to invade.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">His defense of Hamas appears to be based on the argument that their barrage was largely ineffective, owing to Iron Dome, which intercepted many of their rockets, more than 300 of which were reportedly defective to the point where they fell on their own population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Incompetence in offensive actions does not make those actions excusable, nor insulate them from consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #10131a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There will probably still be a position available for him at the public broadcaster, The ABC, which has no worries about offending subscribers as the taxpayer picks up the tab.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--><br /> <!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-45958833470568796112014-08-05T00:31:00.000+10:002014-08-05T00:31:04.996+10:00Leyonhjelm doing the right thing for no good reason (or something)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5y5vHeuVNY/U9-XM8aFrKI/AAAAAAAAIfM/RUVJZdMzj9I/s1600/1400153455786.jpg-620x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5y5vHeuVNY/U9-XM8aFrKI/AAAAAAAAIfM/RUVJZdMzj9I/s1600/1400153455786.jpg-620x349.jpg" height="200" width="186" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">Statists struggle to understand libertarians on those odd occasions where they actually bother to try to get a handle on the thinking behind non-interventionism and personal liberty.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Patrick Stokes, a lecturer in philosophy at Deakin University is an example of this phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Patrick seems to think that it is not enough to accept that it is OK to let people do stuff that you might not care to do or might even not like on the grounds that it is non-coercive and doesn’t affect you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You have to have a good reason to leave people alone in his jaded point of view.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stokes starts off with the antics of Philip Nitschke in the euthanasia field, then attempts to link this with the LDP’s stance on same sex marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He demonstrates his confusion on the subject matter by <a href="http://theconversation.com/strange-bedfellows-euthanasia-same-sex-marriage-and-libertarianism-29651">trying to link libertarian thinking to the old left/right paradigm:</a>&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">This problem isn’t unique to the euthanasia debate. Last week, newly-minted Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm announced plans to introduce a bill to legalize same sex Marriage.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">As a libertarian, Leyonhjelm has called for lower taxes and a massively reduced role for government. Yet his position on marriage equality aligns him with a policy more closely associated with the political left. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">… Philosophers such as Richard Mohr have argued that committed same-sex relationships already <i>are</i> marriages in a substantive sense, and the law should simply recognise that.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">For libertarians (for the most part), the only real substantive good is individual autonomy.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">Leyonhjelm doesn’t argue, as far as I can see, that certain types of relationship have a special, substantive value; he simply thinks, “It is not the role of government to define relationships.” (In which case, we might ask, why should governments get involved in certifying marriage at all?)</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">Those of us who support same-sex marriage can probably live with that tension, if it delivers the outcome we want. But the philosophical tension between approaches is still there.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">And the very moral thinness of libertarianism, its refusal to trade in any ethical currency other than liberty, sits uneasily with issues of life and death, where all sorts of other moral considerations are in play. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">There is no explanation offered as to why we should think, “that certain types of relationship have a special, substantive value.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In an argument for marriage equality, it simply makes no sense to claim that one form of relationship is special, something that those opposing SSM claim as a key point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Such a claim is counter-productive.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">It is nice to know though, that statists arguing the issue as a special case for SSM as some kind of state granted privilege are prepared to hold their noses and accept Leyonhjelm’s support, even if they don’t really like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">He then goes on with the following doozy:<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">One reason death is viewed as normally being a harm to the person who dies is that it deprives us of goods we would have enjoyed had we lived. In a situation where there is nothing left in the patient’s future but pain and loss of dignity, there are no more goods to lose.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">For those of us who deal more with the real world rather than academic navel gazing, the biggest reason for death to be considered a harm, is that we don’t get to live longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">At this point, he exposes the weakness of his argument under the rather dramatic heading of:<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 23.0pt;">Libertarianism’s moral moonscape</span></b>&nbsp;</div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">If you think, as Nitschke apparently does, that the question here is simply about exercising a right to suicide, why should it matter whether someone is terminally ill or not? If someone wants to die, and they’re clear-headed enough to make competent decisions, who are we to interfere with their personal liberty in order to stop them? …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">… When teaching classes on the ethical debate over euthanasia, I’ve found that students often seem to struggle with explaining why it should matter whether the patient is dying (or at least permanently debilitated) or not. Yet from a mercy perspective, it matters very much that there are, in fact, no truly good options left open. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">It sounds like those students have a more consistent view than their teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>To assume the right to deny a person the right to die, we are adopting the assumption that we have a right to insist that they live, even against their own wishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No explanation of this position is offered. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">Assuming the right to refuse the right to die implies a form of ownership over the person involved which is an anathema to all decent civilized people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The problem most of us have with Nitschke’s position on the recent suicide of a depressed 45 year old is that he didn’t advise him to seek psychiatric advice.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">Nitschke is not a libertarian, never was, and never will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He is a statist leftist who proved in the Western Australian senate election rerun, that he prefers to support leftist parties, even those who oppose his cause to a libertarian party that in the main, supports his single issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">In attempting to secure some sort of dispensation from the state in relation to his plea for special interest, he has fluked a position where the LDP has a similar morality based position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This does not make him a libertarian in any way, shape, or form.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;">The LDP policy on voluntary euthanasia <a href="http://www.ldp.org.au/index.php/policies/1142-assisted-suicide">can be found here.</a>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-72414132649681672142014-07-30T00:41:00.000+10:002014-07-30T00:43:19.679+10:00WA Potato Marketing Corporation bites the dust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-25vRP7Nbcr4/U9exUZIYeQI/AAAAAAAAIe8/uUY1iS3nHCU/s1600/caveman_wheel_wife_mashing_1065575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-25vRP7Nbcr4/U9exUZIYeQI/AAAAAAAAIe8/uUY1iS3nHCU/s1600/caveman_wheel_wife_mashing_1065575.jpg" height="142" width="200" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Cartoon: <a href="http://www.toonpool.com/artists/rmay_997">By R May</a></span></b>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">It looks like Western Australia is sliding off into anarchy with the removal of another regulator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Potato Marketing Corporation appears to be heading towards the chopping block on the recommendation of the <span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) apparently at the behest of the Labor opposition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Fears of rogue potato growers doing whatever they want and street vendors selling illicit potato products to unwary addicts in dark alleys <a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-potato-laws-embroiled-in-controversy-20120315-1v7ap.html">have been dismissed:&nbsp;</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Arguably an anachronism in today's capitalist world, WA's Potato Marketing Act of 1946 - and its subsequent regulator, the Potato Marketing Corporation of WA - trace their history back to the shortages of the Great Depression and post-war food security.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The corporation not only controls what potato varieties can be grown and sold, but who grows them and how much they are paid.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It has the power to search premises, confiscate equipment and crops, and prosecute farmers - as rebel southwest potato grower Tony Galati has found over the years after being threatened with legal action for overplanting and trying to sell excess spuds cheaply. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">… ''The Potato Marketing Corporation and Western Australia's absurd laws have stifled competition and denied choice to growers and consumers,'' Mr McGowan said. &nbsp;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">''No other Australian state has a body that decides what varieties of potatoes can be grown, who can grow them and at what price they can be sold.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">''It should be left to the growers to decide if they will grow a particular variety of potato.''</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mr McGowan said the restrictive laws were responsible for some of Australia's highest potato prices and, of the 66 commercial varieties grown around the nation; only 13 were permitted in WA.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">''It would be comical if it wasn't so damaging to WA's economy and consumer and grower choice,'' he said. ...</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Marketing authorities and regulations became popular after World War 2, possibly as a reaction to the demise of wartime rationing, fears of a free market renaissance, and a need to find spots for all of those bureaucrats likely to be left with nothing to interfere with.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Both Labor and the Liberal and Country Party, (now National Party or LNP) were very keen on the idea; the difference being that while Labor aimed to control production, distribution, and marketing of products, the conservatives chose to regulate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There was little difference in the result.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">During the 60s, and 70s, the most heinous crimes you could commit in Queensland on the basis of penalties, were breaches of national Party orderly marketing regulations.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-35544549794099235202014-07-23T00:42:00.000+10:002014-07-23T00:42:02.911+10:00Newman government backtracks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><i>"In retrospect it becomes clear that hindsight is definitely overrated!"</i> Alfred E. Neuman. (No relation to Campbell)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oRjlOL_bHJE/U852UknMf3I/AAAAAAAAIes/WJx2WixgtDY/s1600/election_vote_politician_hear_1188755.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oRjlOL_bHJE/U852UknMf3I/AAAAAAAAIes/WJx2WixgtDY/s1600/election_vote_politician_hear_1188755.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Cartoon: By <a href="http://www.toonpool.com/artists/rmay_997">R May</a></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In the wake of their second crushing by-election defeat, the Newman government has decided to reverse some of its more controversial, or at least idiotic decisions made in the last couple of years. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It’s sometimes said that the first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The government seems to be doing this, which is something we should give them credit for.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Their task is made more difficult though, in that they apparently have little idea <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/campbell-newman-will-today-retreat-from-some-of-the-governments-most-controversial-decisions/story-fnihsrf2-1226995399249">what the problem really is:&nbsp;</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Mr Newman left the door open to wind back other controversial decisions. …<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">… “They want us to have a good relationship with the judiciary, they want those sort of arguments to cease and desist and they want the focus of everyone to working for Queenslanders.”</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The Courier-Mail</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> had earlier revealed Cabinet would today discuss scrapping several of the most contentious elements of reforms to Queensland’s corruption watchdog and tough anti-bikie legislation.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The Queensland Premier spent yesterday briefing senior LNP MPs on his plans after the Government suffered a massive 18.6 per cent swing against it in Stafford.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">It is understood the Government will reintroduce a bipartisan appointments process for the chair of the newly named Crime and Corruption Commission.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The controversial decision by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to remove the bipartisan parliamentary committee’s role in appointments was heavily condemned by former corruption inquiry head Tony Fitzgerald in one of his numerous salvos at the Newman Government.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Cabinet will also discuss removing some of the harshest aspects of the criminal motorcycle gang legislation that Mr Newman has repeatedly insisted he does not like but were an important weapon in the war against rebel bikies.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">It is also understood Cabinet members have been assured there will be no reshuffle and each will fight on to the election and be tasked with better selling the Government’s achievements.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A senior Government source last night said Mr Newman had briefed colleagues that the Stafford result showed the Government’s pace and extent of reform had worried Queenslanders and they must now act. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The problem with the biker laws is not pink jumpsuits, nor isolation of these prisoners as the LNP seems to believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The entire act is draconian, from its aim of outlawing the act of associating through to huge penalties for being, or having been a member of an organization since declared criminal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There were already sufficient laws to do with all aspects of criminality among these groups; making these laws unnecessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The idea of 15 – 25 year mandatory prison sentences for being, or having once been, a member of a currently declared organization is an anathema to fair minded Australians, and have no place in a free society.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Asset sales are going to have to be done and should be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In a modern nation state there is really no reason for the government to run commercial enterprises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On budgetary issues they have been respectable, although they have not yet produced a surplus.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Since taking office just over two years ago, the Queensland government has been something of a showpiece in how not to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A massive majority seemed to convince the LNP that it was immortal and could act in any way it pleased, and it did.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The massive loss in the Redcliffe by-election earlier this year taught it nothing other than to pay lip service with “We’re listening.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There is probably little likelihood of a Labor win in next year’s election; that would require a stunning turn-around in a state still suffering from buyer’s remorse from the Labor years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The real danger though, is where protest votes from the sizable chunk of voters who find the LNP no better will go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Palmer United is the elephant in the room here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well funded, widely publicized, under scrutinized, and led by a populist with a pathological hatred of Newman, it’s potential to hold the balance of power and render the state government unworkable should not be underestimated.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It is difficult to understand why a government that is not travelling well in the polls and by-elections would rule out a ministerial reshuffle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Newman needs to reconsider this, given that the issues he wants to change are all the products of one minister, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Bleijie had two years since his law degree in a provincial law firm doing ‘commercial law’, (read conveyencing work) when he was elected to state parliament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With the training wheels barely off his work practice, he was made Shadow Attorney General.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is hardly surprising that this guy’s screw-ups have overshadowed anything that the government has actually done.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Newman really needs to tramp him.</span></div><!--EndFragment--><br /> <!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-10303979547270153932014-07-17T01:08:00.000+10:002014-07-17T12:53:15.282+10:00James McGrath; another ‘Libertarian’ senator?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">On the basis of Senator James McGrath’s maiden speech he has a lot going for him among libertarians. Some of his views are straight from the Liberal Democrat’s playbook, while others are consistent with&nbsp;our aims:<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="169" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RwimYvHbJ1w" width="300"></iframe><br />Getting rid of compulsory student union fees isa step in the right direction. &nbsp;The idea that an organisation be allowed to charge a compulsory fee on those it claims to represent because of their employment or other status is akin to granting ownership of those people or allowing a taxation power over them.<br />Having a senator with a strong commitment to freedom of speech is a welcome addition to a house that sadly lacks many members who have either an understanding, or real commitment to the concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It will be interesting to see how many qualifications he puts on it, given that the LNP tends to be rather PC whipped and timorous on the issue.<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">His support for the abolition of the federal departments of Health, and Education are basically the same as the LDP case and for the same reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Neither of them actually run a school or hospital and merely intrude on what is a state responsibility.</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are though a number of other departments and bodies that need the axe, the Department of Climate Change, being one that immediately comes to mind, as well as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The first is designed to engage in histrionics on Global Warming, while the latter helps the new generation of carpetbaggers to invest in more expensive green energy that is compulsorily sold off to consumers under a government mandate.</div><div class="MsoNormal">There is no place in a free society for the government picking winners or engaging in social engineering.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This raises the issue of his call to increase the GST by 50% and extend it to cover all purchases including food ‘with compensation for low income earners’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While the taxes he mentions need to be abolished or reduced, especially payroll tax, slimming down the federal government and passing some of the savings to the states would be a better idea than a tax increase. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The idea of a consumption tax replacing stupid and iniquitous ones like payroll tax is admirable however, these taxes were supposed to be abolished under the original GST proposal, but weren’t. This seems to be rewarding bad behaviour by the states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Low-income earners need just as much basic foodstuffs as the rich although perhaps at a lesser quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There seems little point in increasing the price by 15%, then compensating them for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This merely creates churn, which requires more public servants to administer the scheme.</div><div class="MsoNormal">GST funding is not distributed rationally among states but is rather sent out on the basis of ‘each according to his ability, to each according to his need’, which would have to be reformed for any sort of fairness to exist.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another problem is the ABC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While he correctly makes the case for it to be sold or abolished, he claims that it should be done as some sort of penalty for left wing bias.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In an age where there are numerous sources of commercial TV and radio entertainment there seems to be little reason to spend over a billion dollars per year providing a government network to compete with that.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s rather irrelevant that it’s left wing; that is merely the consequence of being a state media entity dedicated to providing ‘high brow’ stuff that the ‘common heard’ doesn’t require and is therefore not catered fo by commercial networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We don’t need it.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The senate will be better for having this guy in it depending on whether he follows through, or merely votes the party line, good or bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-3365468882029794482014-07-12T01:20:00.000+10:002014-07-12T01:20:49.560+10:00Leyonhjelm inspires another cartoonist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Giving inspiration to cartoonists can be a mixed blessing, frequently a negative one, even a brutal experience. &nbsp;Still, if it is a good likeness, your name is spelt right, and whatever it is highlighting is not a really bad, it can be as good as a big advertising budget for getting your name out there.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DE3xbsgTgW8/U7_x8iWst0I/AAAAAAAAIeM/yjvD-qH5yy8/s1600/999781_532545176821055_144087839_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DE3xbsgTgW8/U7_x8iWst0I/AAAAAAAAIeM/yjvD-qH5yy8/s1600/999781_532545176821055_144087839_n.png" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>LDP Senator, David Leyonhjelm has come off very well, getting the cover of <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9029251/in-praise-of-the-liberal-democrats/">The Spectator Australia&nbsp;</a>on his election.<br /><br />It is understood that the original is proudly displayed in his office.<br /><br />Recently he was seen commenting on how we have a government he likened to Godzilla, a reasonable assessment of the enormous burden of the state on the population with its attendant pernicious imposition of itself into every aspect of our daily lives as well as our wallets in order to fund its depredations.<br /><br />This appears to have inspired well known cartoonist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stephen.gunnell1">Stephen Zeg Gunnell (Zeg)</a> to come up with his offering on the subject, which rather than Godzilla uses the theme of David and Goliath to illustrate this situation and David's role in opposing it.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I9bIgYzDlvI/U7__u5TpUII/AAAAAAAAIec/tyDvZL8crcg/s1600/10543771_10204264923011493_2138506189_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I9bIgYzDlvI/U7__u5TpUII/AAAAAAAAIec/tyDvZL8crcg/s1600/10543771_10204264923011493_2138506189_n.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />&nbsp;<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-43985939759745838482014-07-10T01:24:00.001+10:002014-07-10T01:33:58.917+10:00First Australian senator elected on libertarian platform gives his maiden speech<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">All of Australia’s libertarians are feeling the joy today with the maiden speech of David Leyonhjelm in the senate this afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We have had to wait for nine months since his election last September, for this moment.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is the first time in Australia’s history that a libertarian party has elected anyone into federal politics. Here is what he had to say:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hQsI9u2LTO0" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal">This has been the culmination of a long haul for many of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>From a personal standpoint I have pursued libertarian politics since the mid 70s with the formation of the Progress Party, and later with the Liberal Democratic Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A few others have been at it longer, as the Workers Party preceded the Progress Party. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Nonetheless, 40 years is a long wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Those years have flown by like a stack of papers caught in the breeze since I first walked into a meeting called by a group that inspired me with their message; that we should control the government, rather than have it control us.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Today might seem like a culmination, but as David says, “There is much to be done.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And as Churchill said, “This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lets all work to take control and hand that control back to where it belongs; in the hands of the individual.&nbsp;</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-64274422675385572802014-07-01T01:03:00.000+10:002014-07-01T01:03:54.408+10:00Viv Forbes gets some global warming; Al Gore gets duped<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FvOB_IHiiWY/U7F61NEfgbI/AAAAAAAAId8/i8SnJwunGKQ/s1600/aae58ebd-9aa2-43e8-a7b7-583c9bdcc919-460x276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FvOB_IHiiWY/U7F61NEfgbI/AAAAAAAAId8/i8SnJwunGKQ/s1600/aae58ebd-9aa2-43e8-a7b7-583c9bdcc919-460x276.jpg" height="200" width="197" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Ever since Viv Forbes of <a href="http://carbon-sense.com/">Carbon Sense</a> moved out to Rosewood, he has been complaining every winter about needing a bit of that new fangled global warming.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Apparently the Bureau of Meteorology has listened to him and decided to do something about it by revising and adjusting the records to make it warmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He reports: <o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We live at Rosevale, just over the hills from the Amberley air base. We have just been subjected to retrospective global warming by the keepers of the Amberley temperature record - Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Until 2012, our official temperature records showed we had been in a cooling trend since records started in 1941. In 2012, BOM “adjusted” the original records and, lo, now we are suffering a global warming trend.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">More<a href="http://jennifermarohasy.com/2014/05/corrupting-australias-temperature-record/"> here</a>:&nbsp;</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve been telling him for years that he needs to keep up the complaints; a squeaky wheel gets the most grease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Now he can turn down that electric blanket.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><b>Gore duped</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Clive Palmer, founder of the Palmer United Party, caused a fair bit of consternation among the Liberals and the population at large by announcing that he would be releasing his policy on carbon tax repeal with Al Gore at a press conference. (Aussies love parties with someone’s name attached to them, something believed to have been imported from the Peronists in Argentina.) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">PUP went into the election with a policy of repealing the carbon tax, but Palmer’s policies change pretty much on whim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Clive turned up at parliament house for a week in his own Rolls Royce and other expensive cars claiming to be saving taxpayers money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The following week, he was in a chauffeur driven commonwealth car, which he claimed, was because of his duty to keep Australians employed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">There was good reason to think that the presence of Gore during the announcement meant that Palmer had had another change of heart and would oppose abolition of the tax.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Instead we witnessed the bizarre spectacle of the world’s greatest climate frantic and advocate of punishing energy consumers, Al Gore standing beside a mining billionaire who was announcing that his party would be voting to abolish the carbon tax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The question on everybody’s lips is, did he sell out or was he rolled?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Gore charges quite substantial appearance fees and his presence may have cost Clive a pretty penny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His Chinese partners should keep an eye on those accounts that he can access for $250,000 withdrawals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The answer is probably neither, rather the two of them got together to do a dirty deal whereby Clive was given an indulgence on axing the carbon tax, which costs him $6 million per year on his nickel refinery alone, as well as blocking Abbott’s idiotic Alternative action plan, in exchange for retaining the renewable energy target and the Bob Brown Bank or </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Clean Energy Finance Corporation, both of which benefit Gore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The CEFC is there to help finance crony capitalists and rent seekers in the green energy field to milk the RET by building costly wind and solar farms which survive by selling expensive and unreliable energy at a higher price to consumers under a mandated arrangement from the government.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/clive-palmer-and-al-gore-become-convenient-allies/story-fni0ffxg-1226971201707">Andrew Bolt reports:</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Gore is a co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, which manages and advises on green investments of the kind Gore’s climate scaremongering helps whip up.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Among the businesses it “participates” in is Australia’s $1 trillion Investor Group on Climate Change, which comprises Goldman Sachs and many of our bigger super funds. &nbsp;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Those funds invest big in renewable energy and are scared the Government will soon slash or scrap the Renewable Energy Target, which forces electricity suppliers to use more expensive wind and solar power.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">IGCC has protested that “changes to the RET scheme could undermine the value returns on investments made to date” and “we do not favour any changes”.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This entire arrangement is an agreement between two carpet baggers, one selling green investments on the pretext of a scare campaign that he has championed, and another who is in the position to benefit from the repeal of a tax that if Gore was even moderately honest, he would do everything possible to retain.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The press conference says a lot about both parties, none of it complimentary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-84693585062959642292014-06-18T00:55:00.000+10:002014-06-18T00:55:03.342+10:00Queensland government arrested under VLAD Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xx88p-_pMG4/U6BTBVAb58I/AAAAAAAAIds/jnUK97522Ns/s1600/Waterboard_cambodia3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xx88p-_pMG4/U6BTBVAb58I/AAAAAAAAIds/jnUK97522Ns/s1600/Waterboard_cambodia3.jpg" height="149" width="200" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Image: Qld politicisan, possibly&nbsp;</span>Attorney-General,<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">&nbsp;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Jarrod Bleijie being interviewed by Taskforce Maxima</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In a stunning development, police officers from Taskforce Maxima raided a well-known hang-out on the corner of George and Alice Streets in Brisbane and arrested eighty-nine ‘persons of interest’ found there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>All are expected to be charged under the ‘Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment act as criminal associates.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A spokesman for Taskforce Maxima, Inspector Mark, “Copper” Reid announced that those taken into custody are reasonably suspected of belonging to an organization with a higher than normal rate of criminal convictions and are ‘helping police with their enquiries’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“This gang, Queensland Parliament,” he said “has only 89 members but in the last twenty years, eight of them; (nearly 10%) have done time for serious criminal offences.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“It’s not just small stuff we are talking about here, two were for shagging schoolies, one for extortion, one for corruption and theft, and four for misappropriation of public funds.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He pointed out that it was almost an embarrassment that while police were sent out on a witch hunt against mainly innocent bikers by this very group, they themselves seem to be the very essence of everything wrong in this state today.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Asked by the media what offences these people were alleged to have committed, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Inspector Reid said, “That’s the beauty of a law enacted by an </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Attorney-General</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> with only two years legal experience as a conveyancing solicitor; it is a crime punishable by fifteen years in pokey, or twenty five for leaders, just for being in the company of persons reasonably suspected of having criminal associations.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“This makes our job a hell of a lot easier,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“We thought it would be worth following up on a comment by a Ulysses Club guy we were beating … err interviewing who asked us why we were not looking into parliament house,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Civil Liberties spokesman, Perry O’Corman said that while his organization was opposed to overuse of police powers, this lot deserve everything they have coming to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“While we strongly object to excessive use of force, pick-handles are too good for these pricks,” he concluded. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Liberal Democrat spokesman Gabriel Buckley commented, “The first sitting of Queensland Parliament was done in the old convict barracks in Queen St, so their new accommodations will be quite appropriate and be in line with a great Queensland tradition.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-46853157031285869952014-06-15T23:36:00.000+10:002014-06-15T23:36:15.750+10:00Truss; Your duty to democracy, support your ruling class<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rLiSFUj9K_U/U52gUOfqqbI/AAAAAAAAIdc/8NZpfwva8iw/s1600/048530-cf9468fc-99f8-11e3-986c-06d72cd520ac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rLiSFUj9K_U/U52gUOfqqbI/AAAAAAAAIdc/8NZpfwva8iw/s1600/048530-cf9468fc-99f8-11e3-986c-06d72cd520ac.jpg" height="200" width="186" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Acting Prime Minister, Warren Truss seems to be a little miffed with people voting for Palmer United, but doesn’t seem all that fussed with other minor parties.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Speaking about the future for PUP, he claimed that it, like others before it would ultimately fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This is a reasonable assumption given the fate of Pauline Hanson and the Australian Democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">At this point though, Truss loses the plot with his claim that voters have <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/politics-news/clive-palmer-may-be-saviour-like-pauline-hanson-says-warren-truss/story-fn59nqld-1226954763372">‘an obligation to democracy’ to vote for the three majors</a> (although he only mentions the LNP):&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">… He said yesterday those who voted for him [Clive Palmer] in protest were ignoring their obligations to democracy and putting their country at risk.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Mr Truss, Acting Prime Minister while Tony Abbott is overseas, said the Coalition took its responsibilities seriously and would get on with the job of delivering what was important for Australia. He said other parties could worry about themselves.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Asked if Mr Palmer's Palmer United Party was just a “flash in the pan”, he said there had always been independent parties.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“We have had plenty of saviours in the past, like Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter. They all made a little bit of an impact for a while,” he told reporters at the NSW Nationals conference in Queanbeyan.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Mr Palmer was a big winner at the 2013 federal election, gaining his own seat and three Senate spots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ms Hanson roared on to the Australian political landscape in 1996 but was only in federal parliament for a single term.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Despite big predictions, the vote for the Katter's Australian Party of Mr Katter, a longtime Queensland-based MP, was disappointing at the last election, and Mr Katter's personal vote slumped.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Mr Truss said there was always a protest vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“Sometimes these people will gain support from that element,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“Those who throw away their vote in some kind of protest are in fact ignoring their obligations to their democracy but also putting their country at risk.”</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">It is a curious claim that voters have an obligation to democracy that requires them to support their established ruling class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is downright bizarre to then go on to claim that failure to do so puts the country at risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Of what???</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;">The risk is not to the nation but to the governing triumvirate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Wazza, like so many other politicians, tends to confuse his own party’s interest with the national interest.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Truss’s problem will not end with the demise of PUP; the vote for Clive is only the symptom of a much bigger issue for the LNP and other majors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The real problem is that around a quarter of the electorate has had a gutful of the dithering, spendthrift major parties and want someone else to do the job.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Palmer is offering little other than another populist party competing for the ground already covered by the Liberal/ Labor/Greens cartel, but as a policy free zone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>His only appeal to the electorate is that he is not LNP, Labor, or Greens.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-78724313070973290212014-06-14T00:20:00.000+10:002014-06-14T00:20:14.667+10:00“None of these candidates wins in Nevada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kQbt2hhTa08/U5sGoKmiUgI/AAAAAAAAIdM/eWVr6oXlUMY/s1600/530557-noneoftheaboveballot-1364988248-777-640x480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kQbt2hhTa08/U5sGoKmiUgI/AAAAAAAAIdM/eWVr6oXlUMY/s1600/530557-noneoftheaboveballot-1364988248-777-640x480.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">There has been a major embarrassment for the Nevada Democrats in their primary for Governor, with ‘None of these candidates’ winning the poll. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>In fact, it wasn’t even close, NOTA getting 29.96%, and the leading candidate only pulling 24.9%.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2014/06/none-of-these-candidates-wins.html">Libertarian Republican</a> is reporting that only one candidate beat NOTC in any county, his home one, and by a narrow margin.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Unfortunately, this does not mean that there will be no Democrat standing in November, nor does it requite a new ballot, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/06/11/None-of-the-Above-Wins-Dem-Primary-For-Governor-in-Nevada">the second placed candidate will be nominated to stand</a>:&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><a href="http://silverstateelection.com/NVOther/"><span style="color: #2975aa; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">"None of the Above" won </span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">with 29.96% of the vote.&nbsp;Nevada was the first state to institute a “none of the above” line to its ballot in 1975, as a way for voters to protest weak, unqualified candidates.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Senator Harry Reid, who runs the Democrat party in Nevada with an iron fist,&nbsp;told reporters earlier this year, that the candidate to run against the popular&nbsp;Republican Governor Brian Sandoval, would be <a href="http://blogs.rgj.com/politics/2014/02/18/after-sisolak-says-no-harry-reid-says-nevada-democrats-have-another-candidate-for-governor-waiting-in-the-wings/"><span style="color: #2975aa; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">"a respectable Democrat and someone that people know."</span></a> …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">… <a href="http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/a53fe64ea1804eae99e3a92ae58a9b1a/NV--Nevada-Primary-Governor"><span style="color: #2975aa; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Second place went to&nbsp;Robert Goodman,</span></a>&nbsp;a retired state economic development commissioner,&nbsp;who got&nbsp;24.9% of the vote. Since "none of the above" can't win under state law, virtual unknown, Goodman will be the nominee.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">There is probably little point in standing a Democrat there given the extreme embarrassment associated with the ballot with their candidate clearly not meeting the expectations of the electorate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His acceptance speech should probably start with, “Boy, is my face red.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Libertarians have long favored the idea of a </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">‘None of these candidates’, or ‘none of the above’ option in ballots to allow voters the option of letting the parties know that they are dissatisfied with the quality of the candidates on offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Parties tend to promote hacks or shills who can be relied on to toe the party line, good, or bad, while voters have to put up with whichever idiot is the least worst option for the term of the elected body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The libertarian position though, is that in the event of NOTA winning, a new election should be called with those candidates excluded, or that the position should be left vacant, or unfunded.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The then Australian libertarian party, the Progress party first called for this option in 1980 when <a href="http://economics.org.au/2013/05/the-electoral-act-should-allow-voters-to-choose-none-of-the-above/">Viv Forbes made the following statement</a>:&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><b>“Election ‘illusion’,”</b> <i>The Canberra Times</i>, April 21, 1980, p. 9.</span></div><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">The <a href="http://workersparty.info/"><span style="color: #7e1a15; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Progress Party</span></a> yesterday called for an amendment to the Electoral Act to allow voters the choice of “none of the above” in all Federal, State and local elections.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">The national secretary of the party, Mr <a href="http://vivforbes.info/"><span style="color: #7e1a15; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Viv Forbes</span></a>, said that until voters could say “no” to all candidates, the voting system was an illusion of free choice.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“To many people at the ballot box, the decision is as significant as the choice between arsenic and rat poison,” he said.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“If a significant percentage of people vote ‘no’ to all candidates, it would indicate massive public disapproval of the policies of them all.”</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 19.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></div><br /> <!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-30662923179226511062014-06-08T01:24:00.000+10:002014-06-08T01:24:24.254+10:00Move to repeal plain packaging<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><b>Social Problem</b>: n; Something enjoyed by the multitude, as seen through the eyes of a statist who doesn’t like it. – Jim’s Dictionary<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Image: CourtesyThe Australian</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JZrgdpd9au8/U5Ms0jil1bI/AAAAAAAAIc4/jUUrUHD29gw/s1600/363189-e177dd7a-ed71-11e3-a302-2981935fe9a0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JZrgdpd9au8/U5Ms0jil1bI/AAAAAAAAIc4/jUUrUHD29gw/s1600/363189-e177dd7a-ed71-11e3-a302-2981935fe9a0.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Some time ago it was reported here that plain packaging of tobacco products had resulted in a significant rise in counterfeit cigarettes coming in from places like China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Predictions that this would be the case <a href="http://jimunro.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/plain-packaging-not-doing-so-well.html">were dismissed during the passage of the bill.</a>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Now the very pretext for the legislation has been blown out of the water with the finding that the decline in smoking over the previous four years has come to a screaming halt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Australian has reported that the volume of tobacco products used in the last year <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/labors-plain-packaging-fails-as-cigarette-sales-rise/story-fn59nokw-1226945123085?from=public_rss&amp;utm_source=The%20Australian&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;net_sub_uid=77734377">has increased by 0.3%:</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">… The 0.3 per cent increase, though modest, goes against a 15.6&nbsp;per slide in tobacco sales over the previous four years — and undermines claims by then health minister Nicola Roxon that Australia would introduce the “world’s toughest anti-smoking laws”.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Plain packaging laws, which came into force in December 2012, have instead boosted demand for cheaper cigarettes, with reports of a more than 50 per cent rise in the market for lower cost cigarettes. …</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Now a couple of coalition backbenchers, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Liberal MP Alex Hawke, and Nationals MP George­ Christensen</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> have suggested repealing the law, oddly for the LNP on the grounds <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/libs-push-to-repeal-nanny-state-plain-packaging-laws/story-fn59nokw-1226946308874">that it is nanny state legislation:&nbsp;</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Liberal MP Alex Hawke likened the initia­tive to other “nanny state” policies that Labor pursued, “even when it appeared they wouldn’t work”.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“I think our policy should be evidence-based and where governments get the best bang for their buck; that is on individual responsibility, rather than big government,” Mr Hawke said. He said the tobacco policy had failed and it should “absolutely” be revisited.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Queensland Nationals MP George­ Christensen said this week that plain packaging signalled an “inch-by-inch encroachment into our personal lives”. …</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">… Greens senator Richard Di ­Natale hailed the switch to cheaper cigarettes, saying the policy had undercut the power of brands to attract younger smokers.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Michael Moore said the rise in tobacco sales recorded in the study was a net decrease, when adjusted for population growth, and the few remaining smokers would be the hardest to convince.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Public Health Association seems to be in denial if it is seriously claiming that population growth is solely responsible for the rise that it claims is a decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This ignores the previous 15.6% decline in the previous four years and there has been no huge increase in our numbers in the last twelve months that would account for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Senator Di ­Natale’s statement pretty much sums up the Greens approach of being against big tobacco companies rather than smoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He is actually cheering the increase in the use of counterfeit cigarettes because he doesn’t like Phillip Morris.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Don’t expect the coalition to act on this anytime soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Most LNP members are probably Googling ‘social responsibility’ and staring incredulously at the answer and wondering how such a concept could come into being.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--><br /> <!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-30948925403290549392014-06-05T12:15:00.000+10:002014-06-05T12:15:34.960+10:00Real ‘pork cutter’ wins Iowa GOP senate primary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Joni Earnst has won the Iowa primary with 53% of the vote, confounding pollsters and pundits who maintained that she would get less than the 35% needed to avoid a runoff. During her campaign, she produced one of the most outstanding ads we have seen, sending PC bedwetters into a lather:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Dh9TGDRBVk4" width="560"></iframe> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-42143060722057290502014-06-04T23:50:00.000+10:002014-06-04T23:52:28.169+10:00Palmer United Party will split up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C1ScVY0Mjl8/U48iF_za43I/AAAAAAAAIco/DwcbIMBSHko/s1600/289757-005543ea-b7da-11e3-a264-cacd3e0700b0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C1ScVY0Mjl8/U48iF_za43I/AAAAAAAAIco/DwcbIMBSHko/s1600/289757-005543ea-b7da-11e3-a264-cacd3e0700b0.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Cartoon: <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/cartoons/photos-e6frg6zx-1226796005926?page=48">By Bill Leak</a>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In an interview with Miranda Devine, Liberal Democrat Senator elect, David Leyonhjelm raised the possibility that the Palmer United senators would cease to vote as a block and go their own way at some point in the future. <a href="http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/47151#.U43NCShv1FI">Flick across to the 11 and a half minute mark.)</a> :&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">David points out that they are all different characters with no basic unifying philosophy to unite them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The only thing they really have in common is Palmer’s money getting them into the position they are in today, which is not much of a uniting feature.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A split up seems to be on the cards sooner, rather than later as Palmer himself becomes more and more, an embarrassment to his senators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His act of demonstrating solidarity with the working class man, saving him money by turning up at parliament in a chauffeur driven Rolls rather than a ComCar appeared more like the action of a poser than that of man of the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A Hilux Ute would have been more appropriate.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #441337; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">As if his current antic of picking a fight with Abbott’s Chief of Staff, Peta Credlin is not bad enough, his refusal to apologize exacerbates his original thoughtlessness, and his reason for refusing to do so <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/clive-palmer-refuses-to-back-down-on-attacks-against-pm-aide-peta-credlin/story-fn59niix-1226941223846">must have his senators cringing</a>:&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Mr Palmer has claimed Ms Credlin wields “undue influence” over the Prime Minister, engineering the Coalition’s paid parental leave policy so she can “receive a massive benefit when she gets pregnant”.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Labor and Coalition figures have condemned the remarks, with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop branding the comments “particularly hurtful” as Ms Credlin has struggled to conceive through IVF. As a commonwealth employee, Ms Credlin is already entitled to a generous parental leave entitlement.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Mr Palmer defended his comments, accusing Ms Credlin of wielding “undue influence” over Mr Abbott by allegedly dictating ministerial appointments and guiding policies that are imposed on the Coalition party room.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"></span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">“I’m not going to apologise because that’s my position. I’m elected to parliament and being elected to parliament carries a lot of different privileges in relation to raising certain issues,”</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"> the Member for Fairfax said.<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">By ‘privilege’, he is referring in part <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Work_of_the_Parliament/Parliament_at_Work/Parliamentary_Privilege%20While%20it%20is%20design">to parliamentary privilege,</a> something politicians have granted themselves through the ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Sometimes referred to as “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">freedom of speech in parliamentary proceedings,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">” this rule effectively prevents members of the public taking legal or civil action against MPs over any statement they make in the course of debate.&nbsp;</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;">This is intended to allow for searching inquiry to get to the bottom of things without the threat of legal sanctions getting in the way, all too often it is used as a cowards castle I order for the lower forms of life in parliament, to slander the innocent and even old scores.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">This is an unfortunate reflection on the sort of people we vote into high office and Palmer is one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Now <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4018926.htm">he is denying he said it</a> despite TV footage to prove the contrary:&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">SARAH </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">FERGUSON: Forgive me, but the following day you also said that she had engineered the policy in order to reap a benefit for herself. My question is: have you apologised?</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">CLIVE PALMER: I've sent her a note telling her that I never said that she'd done that. I said that - the following day I said that she was influential in the policy and of course she is. Her husband's the Liberal - director of the Liberal Party. But I sent her a note saying that I thought that it was unequitable that women who were working mothers and - on farms and stay-at-home mums didn't get something on the paid parental leave and I was just using her position to highlight the differences where she - a person like her would be eligible, and if that caused her any problems, I was regretful. I didn't mean to hurt her in any way, but I just I - to highlight that all women need to be treated equally.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Hopefully, his senators have some pride and abandon this embarrassment to all concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060534295892170518.post-11210336991246216822014-06-04T15:55:00.001+10:002014-06-04T15:55:58.880+10:00Farewell Doc Neeson <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6IC8zjgyPFc/U46yqtDjlSI/AAAAAAAAIcY/6yG3XhycTN0/s1600/795200-a579b6e8-eb89-11e3-a4d2-9efb85c9fed0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6IC8zjgyPFc/U46yqtDjlSI/AAAAAAAAIcY/6yG3XhycTN0/s200/795200-a579b6e8-eb89-11e3-a4d2-9efb85c9fed0.jpg" /></a></div>Image: Doc Neeson 1947 - 2014 Courtesy, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/angels-frontman-doc-neeson-dies-after-battle-with-brain-cancer/story-fniwj43s-1226942722009">The Australian</a><br /><br />&nbsp;You were one of the best and will be missed.<br /><br /><br />&nbsp; <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3m-SDWQukGA" width="420"></iframe></div>Jim Fryarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15780237902858889143noreply@blogger.com0